A clandestine organization provides shelter and support to victims of persecution of LGBTI people in Russia
GAYLES.TV.- A couple of years ago we published the article "Chechnya, the gay hell" where we warned of the torture, kidnapping and persecution that LGTBI people are subjected to in Chechnya. And it was precisely the intensification of the repression of homesexuals and transsexuals in Chechnya in the 2017, which led a group of people to create a center that could offer safe accommodation in Moscow.
Currently, some 200 people have passed through its facilities and it has the capacity to host 15 simultaneously. His character is clandestine and is known as "Moscow Community Center". Your director, Tatiana Vinnixenko report in an interview to Televisió de Catalunya that the people who enter are offered “House, food and transport cards to go out and look for work”. But beyond covering the most basic needs, the center is also a place to find psychological support and advice on issues such as dealing with a gender change.
The intention of those responsible is that, whenever possible, people who pass through the shelter can resolve their situation in order to continue living in Russia. The exception is those who have fled from the systematic persecution that takes place in the Caucasus, especially in the north of the region where levels of hatred and ferocity make any kind of normalization difficult. "As a rule, stories from the Caucasus usually end emigration and asylum request in a safe country", Tatiana acknowledges.
This stigmatization is especially hard when it comes to transsexual people who are forced to hide their condition or simply disappear so as not to put their lives at risk. It is the case of Adam, who hides his identity for fear of reprisals and who has been temporarily welcomed into the shelter. The account of his vital experience also includes the pressures suffered at the hands of the army: “The military threatened to explain everything to my family. That to me was much worse than what the military themselves could do to me. ”.
But in Moscow itself there are also cases of special virulence. Nick Litvinov He explains in the report that he was expelled from the apartment where he lived for sharing a room with another boy. He also ended up being fired from work for his sexual orientation. But the final blow came with the death of his partner. Nick fell apart and was lost. Today, little by little he regains hope thanks to the affection with which he has been welcomed in the center: “The refuge has given me faith in people. I have seen that in this great city there are still people who help others ”.
Indeed, the silent task that this small group of people carry out is putting their own integrity at risk. An example and a role model.
Source: Televisió de Catalunya
Photography: Televisió de Catalunya, Getty
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